And we're up! I didn't plan to be up for the day at 6:40 am, but that's what happened, and Brooklyn had a great night, so I'll refrain from complaining too much. The second picture is of her this morning, and it doesn't do her justice because our camera is broken. Camera recommendations, anyone?
Of course, I could have launched into grading papers this morning, but my blog was feeling neglected...
So I have questions for my readers: what do you do about formula? In my "vast" experience as a mother of newborns, I know that my kids don't chunk up very quickly via nursing. I can't believe the rolls other kids get--my kids get longer, but not much bigger.
I introduced formula with Isaac at 3 1/2 weeks, because I had to go to the temple to see my brother get married, and there wasn't time to nurse him and get to the temple on time. I used formula occasionally after that and constantly worried about my milk supply. With Lucy, I waited about 6 weeks, and then gave her about 2 oz. at night to "top her off."
I wanted to wait until 6 weeks with Brooklyn, but Doug introduced formula at 2 weeks with her when my hair appointment went long, and Brooklyn wouldn't be soothed. Doug is my knight in shining armor every evening from 10 pm -12 am, watching Brooklyn while I start my night off with some sleep. But he has given Brooklyn formula twice at night now, and I'm undecided about my feelings regarding the formula.
The positives:
1) On the plus side, Brooklyn's best two nights of sleep have been when Doug has given her 2 oz. of formula.
2) Other babies have formula exclusively, and they thrive and get chunky.
3) Doug really likes feeling like he can solve Brooklyn's problems. He doesn't want to interrupt my evening "nap" by bringing me a crying baby and telling me there's nothing else he can do to soothe her.
4) Formula is not the end of the world, and it hasn't seemed to mess up her tummy to have both kinds of milk.
The negatives:
1) I don't want to mess with my milk supply. All the lactation literature I have read says to nurse exclusively, even when it seems like your supply isn't awesome. The supply will increase as the demand requires.
2) I know it's bizarre, but part of me loves seeing my babies get bigger, and thinking, "I did that!" When my kids get formula, I feel like I can't be proud of myself, because formula did it. So I'll just label #2 as straight up fallacious reasoning. Yes, "I did that!," no matter what kind of milk my baby gets. I feed her, and she grows. I can be proud of myself for taking care of my daughter, becuase I'm doing a great job.
So those are my formula thoughts. Even though I don't like that my newborn is having formula, it feels like the good outweighs the bad, and the 6 oz. of formula Brooklyn has had so far in her life won't devastate my plans to nurse her.
7 comments:
you're family is growing up so fast. i just love it.
about formula -i've done both and pumped. sometimes when its not really easy to nurse and they just want food formula just works the easiest. but if i do formula then i definitely make sure i pump just so my body won't miss the feeding. even if it is a hour or 2 later.some reason your body will still be able to produce milk for you to nurse.
but my advice is what ever you feel most comfortable with.
if you don't want formula at all then try to pump so when its doug's late night shift he can give her breast milk.
but in the end as long as she is eating and healthy then that is all that matters.
and don't be to hard on your self. you're a mom of 3 and doing and amazing job.just look and isaac and lucy.
hope you're enjoying idaho.
miss ya!!1
There is nothing wrong with adding formula. You are an amazing mom for even worrying about wanting to give your children what's natural. But I got to tell ya, my kids that I have used formula on, I have had a much better experience with. For one, I had my sanity. Nursing all day, every day for a year (give or take depending on the kid)is hard. You are never YOU, you are always your baby's food supply. With everything else, you can get other people to do, like hold, rock, change, dress etc, but feeding, it's all you. It is so nice to know I can get help in that area too, when I need it, and sometimes pumping can be just as bad because you are still taking that time to do that, not that I'm knocking pumping, I just have a hard time producing anything when I pump after the first month. So for me supplementing with formula is awesome. Any amount of breast milk is better than none. You are doing great. Kids are hard, but they are amazing. Good luck.
Hey Tara! You're Brooklyn is just beautiful. I didn't know what to do about formula, either. All my child-birthing classes scared me with the words "nipple confusion!" Decker gave LL some formula when she was about a week old and starving, and then I think one other time. I got scared, so I exclusively nursed after that. By the time she was 2 months old she wouldn't take a bottle (even if it was filled with breastmilk,she was starving, and I was on the other side of town). Not that I'm complaining about it. I loved nursing. If I could do it again (if we ever get preggos again!! Gah!) I'll probably either supplement with formula or pumped milk so I have a little bit more freedom. But I agree with other commenters on pumping when she gets that bottle so your supply stays up. Let me know what you decide to do.
I loved what your other commenters had to say. They all seemed very balanced and sweet. I had to feed both of my kids exclusively formula after only a short while of nursing because of different issues with each. The first time I seriously beat myself up SO much about it. With the second baby I was almost resigned to it and was just grateful that I had the first week or so to experience that bond when they didn't know if it would be possible at all with his tongue. So, having said that, I would say to definitely not beat yourself up about it. We are so lucky to live in a day and age where we have so many healthy and wonderful options to give babies! Especially if you are primarily nursing, I think an occasional bottle is actually a great thing for both your sanity and for Daddy to bond with baby. If you only supplement with one bottle I don't think it is going to affect your milk supply. It will adjust to having one less feeding--and that's okay! If baby needs more, she will help your body make more. That's the beauty of nursing! Also, I'm fairly sure someone else mentioned this, but my sister only nursed and when she tried to introduce a bottle her baby refuse point blank, which made things REALLy stressful for my sister. So I am here to be your advocate for no-guilt formula feeding because I had to get over the guilt myself.
I wouldn't feel bad about giving her a bottle of formula every day. I exclusively bf Lewis for 12 months, and my milk supply went WAY down at around 9 months. Because we were so anti-formula, Lewis would not take it at all. I once put 1/3 formula, 2/3 breastmilk in his bottle, and he chucked it at my head he was so mad! I intend to bf this new one, but going to try to introduce some formula earlier so we don't have the same problems we had with Lewis. Nothing is more stressful than not having enough milk and your kid won't drink anything else. We did do water the last couple of months and lots of solids.
If we are blessed wtih another baby, I am going to formula feed him. That is hard for me, because I love nursing my babies. I really love it and cherish it. Plus I think it is easier (I hate making bottles and sterilizing things and planning ahead and all that). But my babies don't gain weight well on my milk. I wish I had formula fed Will. I know there are a lot of passionate feelings about nursing, and that we moms get a lot of grief over the issue, but I have read studies that say that the correlation btwn nursing and IQ is simply a correlation, not a causal relationship. The types of moms that nurse tend to have higher IQ kids, but they cannot say exactly why. Another mom friend had a baby the same month I had Will (now almost 4 yrs old) and her baby was not gaining weight well, either, even more poorly than Will. She gave up on nursing and introduced a bottle and her daughter got big. And she felt so proud of herself because she had solved a problem. I was so remorseful when I saw the two different outcomes of our similar situation: I continued to nurse and Will ended up malnourished. She did the thing that everyone criticised, and her daughter thrived. Throw all the guilt out the window and do what is best for your unique set of circumstances. I sure wish I had.
I exclusively nurse Kingsley- meaning I don't supplement with formula (and you know why with all of his digestive problems!) However, that doesn't mean that everytime he eats he gets to cuddle with mommy while doing it. At about 7 weeks I started pumping, adding just a session a day because I was already nursing Kingsley for 4-5 hours throughout the day. I would generally wake up early and pump one side. After about 2 weeks I was able to pump reliably- And most importantly, to freeze a days worth of milk.
I hate pumping. It also causes me to have serious oversupply problems causing Kingsley to get gassy. But, if I pump to only replace what we use out of the freezer, then I don't have problems. And I can go get my hair cut or use my spa package that I got for my birthday.
The most important thing is to do what feels right. Until about 6-8 weeks I would pump if I were formula feeding because I would be paranoid about my supply. But I also pump if I give a bottle of breastmilk now because Kingsley eats SO much and even after 4 months I am paranoid about my supply- because I can't imagine trying to supplement this kid with his intolerances. I knew I wasn't going to have a chubby kid- so I don't mind that he is long and lanky. And he sleeps through the night now even on breastmilk... and if things are really bad, i just make a bottle and have Adam wake up over night if I desperately need my 6-10 hours (and I sleep in another room so I can't hear him).
I love you! And I can't wait to see that beautiful girl in more and more photos :)
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